Free Submariner (2008) by Alexander Fullerton Page B

clip on!’ Second Cox’n Tubby Hart, PO of Blue watch – which
     succeeded White watch at 0200 and is now dispersed in the rush to diving stations. Hart temporarily on the controls of the
     after ’planes,and messenger of the watch Barnaby briefly on the for’ard ones: depth-gauges showing ten feet – twelve – fifteen – down-angle
     steepening. Cox’n Swathely now on after ’planes, Hart’s bulk displacing Barnaby and the latter transferring to the motor-room
     telegraphs, Danvers landing on his feet, slamming against the ladder – slim, broad-shouldered, head and face running wet from
     a small influx of sea – panting at Mike: ‘E-boats, sir – two of ’em, port beam half a mile – lying stopped, so –’
    ‘Slow both motors. Fifty feet.’ Twelve or fifteen seconds maybe since being roused to this – and McLeod acknowledging, ‘Fifty
     feet, sir,’ and ‘Slow both’ having taken over the trim, taking her in hand as she approached periscope depth and passed it,
     for the moment carrying on down, and Walburton on the ladder shutting and clipping the lower lid. Mike telling Fraser the
     asdic man – on his stool at the set, one hand adjusting the headphones over his noticeably small ears, fingers of the other
     settling on the training-knob on a compass-dial at the top of the set – ‘Port beam or thereabouts.’
    ‘Fifty feet, sir.’
    Hydroplanes having to work hard to hold her there. McLeod has the after ballast pump sucking on the midships trim-tank: at
     fifty feet she’s heavier than she was at twenty-eight – periscope depth where she was when last submerged, before surfacing
     at 0100. The deeper a submarine goes the heavier she gets, since in denser water the hull’s compressed, up-thrust thus reduced.
     Archimedes worked it out in 200 BC or thereabouts, his famous ‘Principle’ highlighting the ever-present danger that when a
     boat’s going deep if you don’t lighten her she’ll continue deeper at an increasing rate until sea-pressure crushes her. U-class
     being tested only to 250 feet, it’s a point to bear in mind. One does in any case, it’s one of the things you live with. McLeod’s
     lightened herenough now, anyway – hydroplanes approximately horizontal, needles in depth-gauges more or less static on the fifty-feet marks.
     Won’t be staying at this depth for ever anyway, don’t need to be
too
fussy: he’s switching the order-instrument to ‘Stop pumping’ and ‘Shut “O”’, the stoker at that after ballast pump responding
     with ‘Pump stopped’ and ‘“O” shut’.
    The clock on the for’ard bulkhead’s showing five past three. Mike asking Fraser, ‘Anything?’
    Negative. Fingertips shifting the knob a degree or two this way and that. Narrow face damp-looking, taut with concentration.
     ‘Foxy’ Fraser, his mates call him. The E-boats must still be lying stopped, probably listening on hydrophones but presumably
     not hearing
Ursa
’s HE. Not yet: they wouldn’t be just sitting there if they had. HE meaning Hydrophone Effect, propeller noise. All one can
     do at this stage is wait, strain one’s own underwater ear while continuing to paddle quietly away. Certainly wouldn’t contemplate
     doing battle with
two
E-boats, with the weaponry they carry.
    Might be German-manned, might be Italian. The Germans have supplied their Wop allies with a number of E-boats recently. The
     Italians’ own equivalent are called Mas-boats.
    Anyway, the flurry’s over. Mike joining Danvers at the chart table.
    ‘No doubt of them being E-boats?’
    ‘None at all, sir. Silhouette of the nearer one was clear enough by the time I was on him. It was Llewellyn made the sighting.’
    ‘Good for him. Ambush ploy, presumably.’
    ‘Seemed the likely thing, sir.’
    Two of them lying stopped and silent – no bow-waves, not much danger of being spotted by the victim before they saw and heard
him
, with his engine’s racket and flare of bow-wave to give him away.